The best streetball announcer on earth calls LeBron James’s first game back with his hometown team, accompanied by Patrick Truby’s illustrations.Published OnOct. 30, 2014

By Scott Cacciola

Oct. 30, 2014

CLEVELAND — It was not an understated affair. The rapper Kendrick Lamar performed outside Quicken Loans Arena before the game. Thousands of residents skipped work. Usher sang the national anthem. Fans tossed confetti in the air. Justin Bieber, courtside in a fedora, was booed.

And then there was LeBron James, who appeared on the Humongotron — no kidding, that is what the Cavaliers call their new scoreboard — before the tipoff in a recorded clip.

“There’s no place like home,” James said as the Humongotron spewed flames that licked the rafters.

Cleveland was the center of the basketball universe on Thursday, and the city could retain that title for the foreseeable future. It almost felt like a coronation before the new-look Cavaliers had played a single game.

The Knicks had other ideas. They rummaged through the confetti for putbacks. They went to their bench to defend James. And they spoiled the party with a 95-90 victory.

“Everybody gave us something,” Coach Derek Fisher said.

The Cavaliers had celebrities and star power. The Knicks had a one-game losing streak and Quincy Acy, who followed up an errant jumper from J. R. Smith early in the fourth quarter by tipping the ball high off the backboard before slamming the rebound through the hoop.

The only sound in the arena came from the Knicks’ bench, which delighted in the play.

“That’s my role,” Acy said, “to bring energy and change the game any way I can.”

Cleveland's Kevin Love, top, battles for a loose ball with the Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire, left, and Shane Larkin in the first quarter Thursday. Love had 19 in his debut with the Cavaliers.CreditTony Dejak/Associated Press

In his celebrated return to the Cavaliers (0-1), James labored for everything he got, which did not turn out to be much. He finished with 17 points and 8 turnovers while shooting 5 of 15 from the field. Kyrie Irving scored 22 points, and Kevin Love had 19 in his debut with the Cavaliers.

“I think this team, the Cavaliers, they’re still trying to find out who they are and how they’re going to play the game,” Fisher said.

James was defended for long stretches by Travis Wear, an undrafted forward who had barely made the Knicks’ roster. It required that kind of effort from the Knicks — unexpected bordering on improbable — to ruin the Cavaliers’ season opener.

Fisher, who went with smaller lineups to counter the Cavaliers’ quickness, watched his players hold their composure late. After Irving sliced to the hoop to cut the Knicks’ lead to 88-85, Smith connected on a runner. And seconds after James got loose for a layup, Anthony calmly drilled a baseline jumper.

At the team’s morning shootaround, James told reporters that the game would be “one of the biggest sporting events” ever. It was assumed that the Knicks, who happened to be in town, would have little to do with it.

And for a while, the game had everything to do with James, who was back with the Cavaliers after spending the past four seasons with the Miami Heat. Fans received packets of talcum powder, a homage to James’s pregame ritual of forming a white cloud of the stuff by clapping his hands near midcourt.

Given the hysteria and their problems in a lopsided loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, many expected the Knicks to be treated like piñatas. Before the game, Fisher noted that the game would still be five on five. “We’re not playing against everybody in Northeast Ohio,” he said, even if it felt that way.

A tie score at halftime, 42-42, came fraught with symbolism when a large chunk of the Humongotron malfunctioned and went dark. It remained that way as the Knicks found some separation behind Anthony and Pablo Prigioni, who made back-to-back 3-pointers for a 59-55 lead.

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Returning to a pregame ritual, LeBron James tossed talcum powder before the Cavaliers opened with a 95-90 loss to the Knicks.CreditDavid Richard/USA TODAY Sports, via Reuters

The Knicks’ effort was especially impressive given that they were again without Jose Calderon, who is, in theory, their starting point guard. After Calderon missed Wednesday’s game, the Knicks announced Thursday that he had a strained right calf that would keep him out of the lineup for two to three weeks.

“We would love to have him,” Fisher said.

In Calderon’s absence, Shane Larkin got his second start. He looked comfortable on the big stage, finishing with 9 points, 5 assists and 5 steals.

As much as James’s life has changed in recent months — his address, his employer, his teammates, his popularity (which has somehow only grown) — he will still feel the same pressures. He is the best player in the world. The Cavaliers will be expected to vie for titles, and to win them.

Early in the game, the Cavaliers looked almost too unselfish. A series of passes led to a turnover and an uncontested layup for Anthony. David Blatt, the team’s first-year coach and something of a basketball icon in Europe, was aware that chemistry would take some time to build with this team.

“Honestly, I would have liked more practice time,” he said before the game.

Like Blatt, James has predicted that the Cavaliers will have their share of struggles this season. It was inevitable, he said, and he knew it from experience, citing his first year with the Heat in 2010, when the Heat lost eight of its first 17 games.

Against the Knicks, the Cavaliers searched with only spurts of consistency. Dion Waiters and Love sank consecutive 3-pointers early in the game. Irving leaked out for a dunk. And then James got involved, his first field goal coming on a layup after absorbing a foul from Anthony.

Yet the Knicks, against all odds, were undaunted. The Cavaliers led by 25-18 after the first quarter, but they began to struggle in the second.

James went 1 of 9 from the field in the first half, collecting as many turnovers (4) as points (4). The party already felt as if it were dying.

“We could have easily come here and paid attention to all the hoopla and whatnot,” Smith said. “I’m glad we didn’t.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Surrounded by Frenzy, Undaunted Knicks Crash James’s Party. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe